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Archive for the ‘OBEDIENCE’ Category

Deuteronomy 5:29 – O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, I beg, plead, and insist upon you that you be obedient to the Lord in all your ways. Obedience is the way to please the Lord. Obedience is the way to show the Lord that you care. Obedience is the way to demonstrate that you are not living to please yourself. Obedience is submission to God’s divine authority. Obedience to God is freedom from sin. Obedience shuts the gates of hell and opens the blessings of Heaven. Obedience is the thing that Satan wars against the most, for it is what he himself refused. For all of his tricks, wiles, and persistence, Satan simply cannot stand against one who is obedient to God. Make no mistake … obedience is the way to Heaven and prosperity on earth!

Do not get me wrong. It is true that we are saved not by works but by God’s grace. It is true that you must accept salvation through Jesus Christ; confess that it is true that he was born of a virgin, died for your sins and for the sins of all mankind on the cross, rose again, and ascended on the right hand of the Father. And yes, faith is of the utmost importance. So is receiving baptism of the Holy Spirit with the fruits and gifts thereof, and exercising all power in the name of Jesus Christ to perform miracles and cast out devils. So is loving your neighbor, including your enemy, and practicing forgiveness. However, it is very possible to believe, receive, have, and do all those things and still not obey!

Jesus did not die so that you could disobey. Rather, he died and ascended for two reasons: 1) To reconcile us with the Father to save us from punishment for BLAMELESS disobedience and 2) so the Holy Spirit could be sent into the world. (Among other things, the Holy Spirit helps guide us from ALL FORMS of disobedience.) Evidence for this is given in Matthew 19:17 where Jesus says: ”And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments”. It is the last portion of that verse that matters; that which says if you will enter into life (meaning eternal life in Heaven), keep the commandments. By the commandments, we do not mean the old covenant given to Moses, but rather all of God’s Word. That includes but is not limited to the contents of the Bible, that which is preached to you by anyone anointed of (and obedient to) God, and what God himself personally puts into your heart through the Holy Spirit or any other revelation. God’s Word is what we live by, but to live by it you must receive and obey it. If you receive Jesus Christ but choose not to obey the commandments of the One God who sent Jesus Christ, not only is it the same as never accepting Christ at all, but it is actually worse!

How can I say that if we are saved by grace and known by our faith and not by dead works? Well, if you reject the commandments of the One who offers his grace, then you reject his authority, and you thereby reject his Word, which proclaims God’s authority and also submits itself to God’s authority. Make no mistake, God’s word obeys God! It says so in Isaiah 55:11 – “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” If that verse is not fulfilled in you, then you have no part of God’s Word, which means you have no part in his Kingdom! If you reject God’s authority and Word, you reject his grace. And if you reject his authority and Word, how can you have faith? More to the point, what is it that you have faith in? A god who will let you do what you want to do? That is IDOLATRY, where men worship gods that they themselves made for their own purposes; usually so that they could fulfill the desires of their own flesh. In order for your faith to be REAL, it has to be faith in THE GOD OF THE BIBLE. THE GOD OF THE BIBLE DEMANDS OBEDIENCE! The God of the Bible demands obedience so much that he sent His Only Son to be rejected and killed so that the Holy Spirit could come into the world to MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU TO OBEY!

And keep in mind where I said earlier BLAMELESS disobedience. That means that all of the things that you did before you accepted Christ – and God’s authority through Christ – will be washed away. They will not count against you. You may still have to pay for them on earth, but in Heaven and on Judgment Day where and when it really counts, it will be as if you never did it at all. Now after you get saved, there are going to be some times that you commit sin out of ignorance. There are going to be some times when you commit sin because you get tricked by Satan. And there are going to be times when you just crack under the pressure. And there are going to be times when you sin because of the influence of evil spirits. Also, the newly redeemed will still struggle with the old habits and issues from their sinful lifestyle. When you commit sins of those types, all you need to is repent. You can ask God if you are doing anything to displease him, and he will tell you. Or the Holy Spirit will convict you; tell you that you have transgressed. All you will have to do is heed the Holy Spirit and submit to your God. God will not allow you to live in a state of blameless sin, for he will never leave you or forsake you. God loves you and wants you to go to Heaven!

So do not worry much about blameless disobedience. All Christians face a lifetime war against demons and the flesh, and a battle or two may be lost along the way. But the key is not to lose the WAR over your salvation and soul. And the way to lose that war is to get into BLAMEFUL disobedience. BLAMEFUL disobedience is when you set out to do things that you KNOW which are wrong. Maybe it is something that you have read in the Bible. Maybe it is something that was taught to you by a preacher, a parent, or whoever God sent into your life. Or maybe it was given to you by the Holy Spirit or by some other divine revelation. All of those things you must ABSOLUTELY OBEY!

Of course, if you do not obey these things, you can still be be forgiven if you repent. But you cannot continue in a state of blameful disobedience. If you do, you are rejecting God’s authority. When you do that, you reject all whom God has sent, which means Jesus Christ, through whom salvation is given, and the Holy Spirit, by whom salvation is maintained. If you continue to declare yourself saved while committing blameful disobedience, you run the great risk of committing blasphemy … blasphemy against Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. All blasphemers and liars will go to hell! How are you lying? It is simple. If you claim that you are saved, part and parcel of that is stating that God is the head of your life. If you say that God is the head of your life but behave in a different manner, then you are LYING. Make no mistake, claiming that God is the authority over your life, claiming that you have given your life to God, is also claiming that you will obey whatever God says do. How can you give your life to God, how can you place yourself under the authority of God, if you persistently defy and obey him? But if you continue to say that you are saved while purposefully sinning, then you are lying on yourself, lying on God, lying on Jesus Christ, and lying on the Holy Spirit, and God just is not going to stand for that any long.

Indeed, if you are going to sin, it is BETTER to be an unsaved sinner, because so long as you are not declaring God as the head of your life, all of your sins will be in the blameless category. Now, of course, you are still in jeopardy of dying while in that state. You are also still in jeopardy of God getting sick of you, shutting the door, and casting you off … of your seeking him but not being able to find him. So make no mistake, if you are not saved you need to get saved as soon as possible! But even after you are saved, if you continue in blameful sin, you are not only in the same jeopardy as the unsaved sinner, BUT you are in danger of additional condemnation of God, additional wrath of God, plus in danger of being a blasphemer and liar. So if you are going to be sin, it is better to just admit that God is not at the head of your life. And it is for this reason why church congregations need to get back into excommunicating people. They are actually doing those people a favor by forcing them to admit that they are not living for God! If you allow someone to continue to profess their salvation and come into the presence of the Lord on a regular basis while being not only a sinner but a liar and blasphemer, all they are doing is making God angrier and angrier.

So it is far better to kick them out of the church to force them to hopefully A) admit that they have rejected God’s authority over their lives and B) start seeking God in earnest. But nothing good can come of allowing them to live in sin; deluding themselves and others that they are right with God. Indeed, if you do, God will hold YOU accountable as well! After all, one of the most clearly given and understood commandments of the Bible is being your brother’s keeper! The Bible also commands you to take transgressors before the church (if you have witnesses and have no “beam in your eye”). So, a person who allows a sinner to remain in the church is guilty of blameful disobedience!

Now this goes against the common old – time religious doctrine “sin is sin.” Someone, anyone show me that in the Bible! This is further proof that the way to Heaven is not your religion or your doctrine or your church. Now the “sin is sin” mantra has sound roots; the Biblical fact that gossiping is no different from homosexual promiscuity. But apart from that, it is not Biblical at all! The difference between blameless sin and blameful sin is YOUR HEART. Now this is where “not by works” comes in. God does not judge your works, he judges your heart. If you have the strong, true desire to love God and keep his commandments, then while you may fall, your sin will fall under the blameless category. You have not rejected God’s law. You have not rejected His authority. You have not rejected His will. You have not rejected His Word. You have not claimed that God has no authority or place in some area of your life. You merely, for whatever reason, made a mistake! Even if it is some issue that is a thorn on your side, something that you seemingly cannot shake no matter how hard you try, then your sin is still blameless! Now you may need to have demon spirits cast out of you, or you may need to go into fasting, supplication, prayer and even “set yourself aside” to overcome this behavior, but the bottom line is that you are not doing this of your own decision to willingly disobey God. You are not doing this because it is in your heart to disobey God. You are doing this DESPITE your love for God and desire to obey him! For this reason, your sin is blameless. Such a person can still claim salvation, such a person is not in danger of blasphemy. You should still seek to overcome that sin through Christ – especially if it is demonic – in order to better achieve God. And God may require it of you to stop that sin, hence putting it into the blameful category if you continue in it. But the point is that your HEART is right, and hence you are still on the highway to Heaven!

By comparison, if you have it in your heart to disobey God, then whether you actually commit the disobedience does not matter. That is why Jesus Christ said that whoever looks at a woman in a sexual manner has already committed lust in his own heart, because sexual relations with that woman was in his heart. Why? The reason is that there are loads of reasons why a person might covet sin but not actually do it. A man might pass on his desire for adultery out of shyness. He might pass on his desire for adultery because he fears his wife, or does not want to harm his children. He may fear becoming embarrassed, or becoming financially wrecked by divorce. Maybe he propositions the woman and she says no. Maybe he never sees the woman again. Maybe he gets into a grievous accident and becomes a quadriplegic! It does not matter the reason why he never commits the adultery; what matters is that he WANTS to. What matters is that his HEART is not right. So, for that reason, a man who does not desire to commit adultery and transgress God but for a variety of reasons (including but not limited to being afflicted by lust and adultery demons and/or being under severe pressure due to the circumstances in his life) does so is actually under less condemnation than a man who looks longingly at a woman but does not touch her! Why? Because where the guy who lost control committed a blameless sin, the man who looks at, desires, and for a second fantasizes about the woman is an adulterer! And if he has accepted Christ in his life and the Holy Spirit tells him to stop looking at and thinking about women in that manner, he is a recalcitrant adulterer who has rejected God’s law and authority when it comes to lust; God’s Word when it says to look upon a woman is the same as committing adultery; and God’s dominion over his sexuality!

Now you are NEVER going to hear this in most churches. Why? Because it is against religious doctrine and tradition. Religious doctrine and tradition is concerned with the feelings and appearances of man. Religious tradition is more concerned with how a man who cannot control his behavior due to demons or who just collapsed under pressure to a bad situation and cheated on his wife. Why? Because it looks bad in public. It makes the church look bad. Because it breaks the heart of his wife and kids. So they will rail against such a man, and put him out of the church, and tell his wife and kids to leave him. And they will cast their eyes down against him and set their lips against him. They will not even find out if he is truly penitent. They will not even find out if he is possessed by lust and adultery demons that came into him by way of a generational curse (or through some public school sexual education curriculum), and has behavior patterns that keep him in bad situations because he honestly does not know any better because he has never been taught. So he gets cast out of the very body that is supposed to cast those religious demons out, break those generational curses, and teach him how to avoid tempting situations. But that very same church will allow scores of men and boys who regularly consume various forms of pornography (and not just the X – rated stuff either but swimsuit magazines, pinup calendars, R rated movies with explicit and exploitative depictions of female bodies and sex) to attend with no problems! Why? Because society does not frown on men and boys who stare at, fantasize at, and become aroused by women who are not their wives. As a matter of fact, society is MORE OFFENDED by men and boys who DO NOT! So, because society says that it is OK, wives look the other way when their husbands stare at half – naked (or fully naked) women on TV and in magazines. Mothers allow their sons to put life – sized pinups in their bedrooms. Not only that, wives and mothers EMBRACE this conduct! “Honey, I know that you are a big fan of _, so I rented this movie that she is in. We can watch it together tonight.” And while this wife and mother is renting the lewd movie to cause her husband to sin – and also so she can sin because of the sex scene with some handsome man who is also in it – she gets her son yet another magazine filled with half – naked female “singers” who cannot even carry a tune in their barely – there outfits, and buy him yet another CD where the “singing” is about sex.

These are CHURCH PEOPLE! Who KNOW what the Bible says about lust, adultery, and coveting! These are CHURCH PEOPLE who condemn only THE ACT of adultery and not THE SIN of adultery! Because of that, many men with adultery, lust, and rejection demons – as well as bad habits – never get delivered or helped. So long as they do not act on those urges by actually committing adultery and instead channel them towards pornography and fantasy, they stay in the church and they stay married. But if they fall down and commit the adultery, they get immediately shamed and kicked out of the church into the gutter with no attempt to help them. Now, obviously, there are far more men who will get into lust and pornography than actual adultery even were there no societal and religious stigma attached to adultery. There are a lot of men who would never commit adultery even if their wives, children, and church did not care. But virtually every man and boy in this society regularly consumes some form of pornography! So, by churches following religious tradition based on the standards of man, WE ARE CREATING MORE BLAMEFUL ADULTERERS THAN THERE WOULD OTHERWISE BE! AND WE ARE NOT HELPING THE MEN WHO WANT TO STOP COMMITTING ADULTERY BUT CANNOT! WE ARE NOT EVEN TELLING MEN THAT ALL PORNOGRAPHY AND LUST IS WRONG AND CAN AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED! That is where religious doctrine, tradition, and institutions get you.

You doubt? Well, how else does Christ saving the woman caught in the act of adultery make any sense? How else could Christ’s actions be anything other than endorsing adultery and encouraging the violation of the 10 Commandments? The mob was going to stone this woman because they were concerned about her outward actions. They were concerned about their religious traditions. But the truth was they had no right to judge this woman because their own hearts were set against God because they rejected his son. Instead of condemning this woman because of her actions, they should have been worried about God condemning them because of the sin in their hearts! But religious traditions, rules, regulations, and doctrines do not apply there, because no man knows what is in another man’s heart! A man can have a filthy, sinful, hateful, demon – filled heart and spirit and never transgress religion so long as his outward actions appear moral. But a man can love God with all his heart and still be judged as guilty by religion if he has the appearance of transgression or if he makes a mistake!

Now while this woman did knowingly act against the Commandments, she still accepted Christ as Lord. How do we know this? It is not so much because of John 8:11, when she said “No man Lord” in response to his question “Where are your accusers? Does no man condemn you?” Why? Because everyone can SAY that Christ is their Lord. Nay, the proof that she accepted Christ as Lord was in John 8:9, which said that after all their accusers left, SHE STAYED BEHIND WITH JESUS CHRIST! Now why did she do that? She was no longer condemned by man. She was no longer in the jeopardy of man. She could have declared herself blameless under the law and gone home. Or she could have said that she was going to get out of there fast before the mob changed their minds to save her life! But no, right then, right there she said that she was going to start doing what God said. She was going to stay in the presence of his Son Jesus Christ! So she did not move from that spot. She stayed until Jesus Christ pardoned her sin (“neither will I condemn thee”), preached The Word to her, and dismissed her from his presence (“Go and sin no more.”) And when Jesus Christ said “Go and sin no more”, she did not hang around and ask him for his interpretations of the law. She did not ask him to do something to protect her in case the mob came back, or her husband became angry. SHE OBEYED GOD AND LEFT! For that reason, though she committed adultery, SHE WAS NOT AN ADULTERESS BECAUSE SHE HAD A HEART TO OBEY AND FOLLOW GOD ONCE GIVEN THE CHANCE! Rather than being condemned by her actions of adultery, she was saved and redeemed by her heart, the evidence of which was her not leaving Jesus until he told her to!

Now you see what religion does. Religion punishes those who love God and rewards those who hate him. Religion denies help to those who need it while providing a refuge for those who want to sin. And religion does NOTHING to help those who cannot control their behavior; it does NOTHING to inform those who do not know any better; it does NOTHING to those who put the standards of man above the law of God. But there is a remnant out there who knows the truth. There is a remnant out there who has faith that if they seek God with their heart, their actions will follow. There is a remnant out there that has rejected all forms of worldliness for all forms of Godliness. There is a remnant out there that seeks to judge people according to how God sees them as opposes to actions and appearances. There is a remnant out there that these things have been revealed to by God himself and his anointed. Do you want to join us in that remnant, in the elect few who are doing the true will of God? If so, the way is obedience.

You might be skeptical. You might say that you are not sure if you are really saved. You might say that you are not sure that you are really delivered from sin. You might say that your heart is not really right towards God. You might say that you are not sure that God will deliver you every single time. You might not have faith, belief, and understanding of everything in the Bible. You might not have love in your heart. You might have done some things in the past that still haunt you. You might have been doing so many things that are wrong for so long (or one thing that is wrong for so long) that you are not sure that you are capable of obeying. You might have something against your neighbor, yourself, or even God himself! You might be thinking that you would be better off not accepting Christ so that your sin will be blameless once your heart is right. These are tricks of Satan designed to keep you from making that last step!

The reality is that you can accept Jesus Christ into your life while still having all sorts of problems, fears, doubts, and bad natures. This is another area where religion fails you. Religion tells you that you have to be perfect. If you fail to be perfect, as virtually everyone does, they tell you to act like it. That is what pretty much everyone settles for … the appearance of perfection or outright open hypocrisy. But you are not accepting God through Jesus Christ because you want to be PERFECT. You are accepting God through Jesus Christ because you want to go to HEAVEN. Because you want to PLEASE GOD! So just do not worry about your flaws. Do not worry about your mistakes. Your flaws and mistakes do matter, but ultimately they will not keep you out of Heaven. Instead, concern yourself with the things that you do knowing that they are wrong, and stop. The things that you KNOW ARE WRONG, the things that you know hurt other people, the things that you know displease God, the things that the Holy Spirit convicts you on, those are the things that will keep you out of Heaven if you do not change.

But again, do not follow in the religious mindset and be negative. Attain a Godly mindset and be positive. God is love, achievement, and victory! He is only a God of condemnation to those who knowingly reject him. So instead of doing the “religion” thing and worrying about the things that you should NOT do thereby seeking the unattainable perfection of action, do the GODLY thing! Seek perfection of HEART by doing the things that God WANTS you to do. The reality is that you can avoid all evil actions all your life and STILL not please God. Why? Because “not breaking the rules” is not doing God’s will! Doing God’s will means God using you to execute His Word and establish His Will upon the earth. If you were to spend the rest of your life in solitary confinement solving math problems and eating bread and water, how are you executing God’s will? You may not break any of the 10 Commandments, but you are still not doing what God REALLY WANTS; which is why he REALLY SENT JESUS CHRIST to save you, which is for you to go out there and make God’s Word come alive through your own actions! Religion is concerned with telling you all the things that you cannot do. It has nothing to do with God’s Word, which says you can do all things through Jesus Christ! The difference between being a religious person and an imitator of Christ is the difference between “I can’t” and “God can!” More to the point, it is the difference between “I can’t” and “God can, will, and is through me!” What about sin? Well with the obedience principle, sin takes care of itself. If you do nothing but what God tells you to do, then you won’t do anything that he DOESN’T tell you to do, or tells you NOT to do. God will keep you plenty busy. He will also give you time to rest, relax, and (contrary to religious teachings and practices) enjoy yourself! But he will NEVER tell you to sin. So just do what God says do and forget about everything else. If you are fearful and obsessed with avoiding sin, then sin you will! Why? Because your heart is not after God. Instead, your heart is merely after being sin – free in your own mind. Your focus in on merely not transgressing, not acting out the will of God. So not only will you sin because of lacking a true heart, but you will become convinced that you sinned when you did not! Even worse, God will tell you to do something through the Holy Spirit, and you will refuse because of your fear that you will sin in the process! You will enter a downward spiral, and eventually crack. At that point you will become disillusioned and either become a hypocrite or a recalcitrant blameful sinner. That is what religion does to people!

Nothing good ever comes from fear. Nothing good ever comes from working and living in the negative. That is why you have to walk in victory. You have to live in the positive. Your motivation should be how to LOVE God, to PLEASE God, to DO GOD’S WILL! Even if you are not yet redeemed, clean, faithful, and filled with the Holy Spirit and hence have a connection with God to know his direct commandments, you can still petition God’s favor by doing the best you can. Remember, to him whom much is given, more that will be required of him. Also, he who is faithful over a few things will be given many things! So do not be downcast over what you do not have. Especially do not use what you are going wanting over as an excuse to commit blameful sin! Even though you may not be completely right and therefore unable to hear God, you still have tons of things at your disposal. Start with the Bible. Anything that the Bible says not to do; don’t do it! But again, be more concerned with the positive. Immerse yourself in the Bible looking for anything and everything that appears to be a directive. If it is something that God told all lovers of him to do (i.e. tithe, help the poor) then by all means do it! If it is something that God only told one person to do, but you can reasonably imitate it, do it! Now do not go out and kill and burn lambs and oxen for offering, or do some of the more unusual things that God directed some of the prophets to do! But you can fast. You can keep the Sabbath. You can observe the holidays, such as Passover. You can even go out and share your faith; teach all nations! And above all, you can pray. You can pray for your own soul; you can pray for others.

Recall the verse “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” of Matthew 5:20. Fulfill that command of Christ by becoming more obedient than the religious people, make an earnest effort not to commit any sin that you are aware of, and you will please God and cause Him to favor and turn towards you! Now this is not salvation by works. Salvation only comes through Christ Jesus! You must still confess and believe. But part and parcel of salvation is submission to God’s will. If you strive to attain a condition of obedience DESPITE all of the issues and problems that you have, you are demonstrating to God that you are serious about accepting him through Jesus Christ; that you are serious about living for Him; that you are already trying to give yourself to God and place yourself under his rule and authority. If you do that by warring against blameful sin and seeking ways to obey God’s commandments, that will cover up a multitude of faults. You will be as the scribe who discreetly answered Christ in Mark 12:32-33, about whom Christ said in Mark 12:34: “You are not far from the Kingdom of God”! If you are able to set your heart upon keeping God’s commandments despite all of your faults, flaws, transgressions, and doubts, you will not be far from the Kingdom of God indeed. You will have overcome a huge barrier by sincerely submitting yourself to God’s authority, and will only have a little bit more to go! It is far better to be a sinner who tries to obey while seeking salvation through grace than a believer who does not even attempt not to commit certain sins and expects to be saved by grace. That is something that a lot of sinners and believers will find out on Judgment Day, and not only will there be lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth, but a few people who will shock everyone (on earth anyway)!

So sinner be encouraged! If you are incapable of doing anything else because of what you are going through right now, set your heart to follow and obey God and do the best that you can. Do that and you will be soon ready for salvation through Jesus Christ. Further, you will be in a much better position to find and attain true obedience through the Holy Spirit when you ARE able to fully believe and accept Christ. There are absolutely no downsides to obedience, and nothing wrong with trying to attain it! If obedience to God is truly within your heart, then God will smile upon you and make you right for redemption through Jesus Christ. May the blessings of God through his Son Jesus Christ be with you always.

Prayer:Father God in the name of Jesus Christ, please make me obedient to thy will in all of my ways. Give me a heart that seeks after you through obedience and submission to thy will. Lord, I want you to be the head of my life. I want to place myself under your authority. I want an obedient heart, not the appearance of righteousness. Please cleanse from me Lord every part of me that covets or is fascinated with anything that displeases you. Please help me to seek to do things for you out of obedience. Please unbind me from the shackles of fear and human notions of religion, propriety, and tradition. Please God make me into a person after your own heart; a person with whose heart you will be well pleased. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen!

Deliverance:The demons that operate in this area are disobedience, rebellion, religion, doctrine, fear, hypocrisy, and self – esteem. Please read the Basic Spiritual Warfare guide to learn more about how to go against these demons to help set captives free and win battles in the name of your God through the power, authority, and victory given to you by his Son Jesus Christ and by his blood shed for you!